Thursday, August 24, 2017

The Dark Tower - An Adaptation of Stephen King's Famous Novel Series

Last night, this movie premiered in Indonesia in all the cinema chains. I had been eyeing to see this one after I saw glimpses of what seemed to be interesting from its trailer. However, I was a bit worried whether I could make it to the theater on time, as I was late in the previous day when I went to see the abduction thriller movie Kidnap. In order to avoid this, I went back from my office at 5.15PM with the thought that I should have plenty of time to reach Lotte Avenue which was only less than 5KM distance. But ended up, I only managed to arrive there at 6.30PM. Still tight but at least I had time to have very quick dinner that my wife had ordered for us. Bottom line, if I have to see a movie at 7PM, I may have to leave exactly at 5 PM or see it in easier location such as Setiabudi or even Epicentrum. Well enough of that now, let us move on to the movie.

Brief Story Line

Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) was a young boy who had been having dreams where he saw a tower being attacked and he felt that it was linked to the earth quakes that some countries were experiencing, including New York where he stayed. He also believed that his dreams which also included a Man in Black and a Gunslinger and ruined worlds were all real. Jake's mother Laurie (Katheryn Winnick - Vikings TV series) and step father Lon (Nicholas Pauling) thought it would be best for Jake to be treated due to this.

Jake who saw a location seemed to be in New York in one of his dreams, went there to find out more. This was where he finally managed to be in the place called "Mid-World" where he realized that the Gunslinger named Roland (Idris Elba - Thor, The Jungle Book etc) was actually real. From that moment on, Jake together with Roland embarked on a journey to the location of Man in Black, who was actually a very powerful sorcerer named Walter (Matthew McConaughey - Interstellar, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and many more).

Meanwhile Walter himself had always been looking for ways to kill Roland but seemed to always fail. When Walter found out about Jake entering to Mid-World, he realized that Jake was the one he had been searching for and instructed his team to capture him.

So could Roland find Walter to finish up what he had been wanting to do for so long? Could Jake return back to earth with his parents? Find them all in this fantasy adventure movie of two worlds.

End of Brief Story Line

Welllll, I got to say that I had high hopes when I saw the trailer to this movie. It looked very promising from the fight scene between Roland and Walter. However, when I finally saw this movie until completion, I found that it was a bit of a let down. The start of the movie seemed interesting enough, the visions/dreams scene were also intriguing, but as the story move forward it was at a rather slow pace. In addition, the action sequences were not that many either. I personally think that the director was not able to make the whole plot very interesting.

Apart from the slow pace, the action sequences were actually quite nice and the climax was totally awesome. If only those actions were made a lot more, perhaps the movie would have been much more interesting. I think that this was also the reason why the movie did not garner a lot of good reviews and the general audience did not seem to enjoy them as well, which was a real shame. The special effects for a movie without mega budget were good. The Dark Tower, the creatures (yes there were creatures) effects and the bullet shooting effects were quite amazing.

Those of you who were not aware, this movie was adapted from the series of The Dark Tower novels written by the famous Stephen King, author of many novels that have been adapted to movies such as Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Green Mile and another one that my wife and I are eagerly anticipating: IT (the 2017 remake version coming to theaters in September). As I understand, the movie was an adaptation of several of the books which is why I think for those who did not read the novels might not be able to feel attachment and understand these whole worlds. Although credit to the director for not making the film too complicated over a short duration of the movie. Maybe, just maybe had this story been made into TV series, it would have been a much more successful commercially at least. This is not to say the movie was a bad one. For me, the whole climax fight scene was satisfying and made up for the "flaws" that I felt earlier. I think my wife was pretty blown away by those scenes (especially the scene of Roland when reloading his guns).

Anyway, if you are looking for a fantasy movie with a gunman fighting against a sorcerer, then you would like this movie. But do not expect it as full blown action movie. Now if you are a fan of Stephen King's novels, there might be possibility you would not be satisfied with this adaptation. However, if you want to see how The Dark Tower universe visualized, then it might be a good thing also to see this one. Oh before I forget, there was no end credit scene at all.

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Special Note:

I never claim to be a movie critic. This blog only represent my personal view and movie experience. It is not meant to be a smart analysis of the feature of the films like script, musical score, acting, directing or any such things. If you are looking for any of that stuff, other blogs may suit you better.